A Good Yarn Sarasota

We have a new dealer in Florida, and we recently had the opportunity to go and visit our new dealer, A Good yarn Sarasota! We had a wonderful time in this beautiful shop full of fiber fun, and we’re thrilled to have them as a dealer!

The owner of A Good Yarn, Susan Post, helps customers find the perfect yarns for their projects.

We helped them get a Strauch Ball Winder and Table Swift up and ready for winding yarn!

The large shop has a huge variety of yarn.

They have several areas where customers can gather for classes and social stitching.

We also had the good fortune to meet Laura, AGY’s resident spinning maven.

We had such a wonderful time in Florida, and thanks so much to Susan and her team for a great visit!

Posted in Strauch Products | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Joanne’s Locker Hook Rug

One of Joanne’s long term projects is a giant locker hook rug. She’s been busy dyeing, carding, and of course hooking the rug, doing each step herself to create what will surely be a show-stopping rug!

Joanne is pulling fiber apart to get it ready for carding.

Working on carding her dyed fiber.

Joanne designed and marked her own backing so she could plan out each color and know where they go. 

Joanne is busy working on her rug! 

The rug starts to grow…

And continues to get bigger…

And after all that work, it’s time for a nap with the cats!

Posted in Fiber | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Book Review, Needle Felting: Sculpting People With Wool by Terese Cato

Today we’re excited to review a lovely new book, Needle Felting: Sculpting People With Wool by Terese Cato. Terese was taught to sew, knit, and crochet by her aunt. Her aunt didn’t have any formal training, only the skills learned from her own mother, Terese’s grandmother. Cato learned how clothes were constructed, how to make patterns with a marker and a stack of newspapers from her aunt. When Cato was young and she ran out of fabric she started looking in her brother’s closet for clothes he wouldn’t miss. She’d rip out all the seams from his clothes and use the fabric to make her own designs. Cato learned her “can do” attitude from her aunt, and that has allowed her to excel in painting, weaving, quilting, woodworking, and woodcarving. We first heard about this book when Terese was writing the section of the book about sourcing wool for needle felting, and we’re so thrilled that she included a Strauch carder in her book. Terese does an excellent job explaining different types of wool. This is Terese’s third book, Sculpting People With Wool is a comprehensive guide to sculpting people with wool for both beginner and experienced needle felters. With this thorough guide it’s easy to learn to create three-dimensional sculptures with wool. The step-by-step directions will teach you how to sculpt each part of the face and body to create charming characters.

Needle felting is a fun and easy craft. If you choose a smaller project you’ll find it’s much faster than knitting, and a great way to use your carded fiber! We hope you’ll give needle felting a try!

Posted in Strauch Artists | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Birth of a Carder

Today we’d like to show you how our carders are made. It all starts with American wood. The rough lumber is stored in one of the dry and protected barns.

These building are where the carders are born.

Next we cut the frame wood, and then it’s ready for trimming.

Carol is cutting the frames into proper lengths.

All the wood pieces are treated with Watco Danish oil before assembly.

The frames are built and ready to accept all the other parts.

Put everything together and…we have a Finest!

Posted in About Strauch, Strauch Products | Tagged , | Leave a comment

2014

2014 was another great year for us at Strauch. Here are some of the highlights from this year.

We started supporting a local non-profit organization, Infinity Acres, they teach disadvantaged and handicapped youth to work with fiber.

We received many beautiful photos of batts made with Strauch carders.

We hosted our annual spin-in.

We carded batts.

We went to the UK to meet our exclusive UK dealer, The Threshing Barn, went to Woolfest, and a few pubs in between.

We went to North Carolina and hung out with our friend Esther and made some tutorial videos.

We wound (just a few) balls of yarn.

We discovered that stashing starts younger and younger, Ellie Mae is 3!

We’re looking forward to meeting more great fiber enthusiasts and more adventures in 2015!

Posted in Joanne's Musings, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Christmas Crafting Inspiration

Joanne has made this beautiful beaded tree to add to our Christmas decorations, so today we’d like to share some of our other favorite Christmas crafting ideas that we’ve found around the web. First off, here are some photos of Joanne’s beaded tree, which started this all!

Joanne making the many beautiful branches.

All done!

 

And here are some great quick projects perfect for gifting or just for getting into the holiday spirit! These projects are great for using up small amounts of wool left over from other projects.

Make these needle felted mittens using cookie cutters from Mega Crafty. They are perfect for gifting and decorating!

This Felted Wool Garland is great for decorating, and this project is easy enough to do with the young ones to keep their little hands busy during school vacation! Get the tutorial from Whipperberry.

These beautiful felted soaps are also easy to make and perfect for gifting! Learn how to make your own artisan felted soaps from The Nest.

Posted in Fiber | Leave a comment

Skein to Scarf

This year at SAFF the traditional sheep to shawl competition was updated to a skein to scarf competition. A team of three fiber artists, one weaver and two spinners, spin the yarn and then weave the hand spun yarn into a 8″ x 68″ scarf–all in three hours.

This year the winning team used a Strauch carder to prep their fiber for spinning. Patricia Evans shared these photos of their winning scarf and said, “We couldn’t have done it without your awesome carder! One of the main aspects of our scarf and yarn was the blending of all sorts of fibers on the spot.”

SAFF Sheep to Shawl winner, Strauch Fiber

SAFF Sheep to Shawl winner, Strauch Fiber


Posted in Shows | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Fall Shows

We had a wonderful time traveling and meeting so many wonderful fiber enthusiasts this fall. We’ve wrapped up our fall show season, and would like to share some photos from our adventures!

First up, photos from the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, held each year in Asheville, NC.

 

A view of the floor. There were more booths in another building, too!

Joanne talking to customers in the Strauch booth with Earth Guild at SAFF.

 

Otto and Joanne–always having a good time!

 

The Strauch booth at the Fall Fiber Festival in Montpelier, VA.

 

Joanne is off to enhance her stash at the Fall Fiber Festival. 

 

Posted in Shows | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Visit With The Woolery

Last weekend Nancy and Chris Miller of The Woolery came to visit Strauch headquarters and see how all our machines are made! They stock the full line of Strauch tools, and we had a wonderful weekend visiting.

Nancy and Chis with the Strauch team, from left to right: Carol, Liz, Victor, Joanne, Chris (with the overwhelmed look), Nancy, Lawre and Adam.Strauch & The Woolery

Taking a lunch break with the  team.

Chris and Nancy relaxing.

Woolery

Posted in About Strauch | Tagged | Leave a comment

Show Season!

Show season is just around the corner, and we’d love to see you in person! Whether we’ve met you a dozen times before at shows or you’re attending your first fiber event we hope you’ll stop by and introduce yourselves at these upcoming events!

Here’s a schedule of our upcoming shows:

Fall Fiber Festival October 4th & 5th in Orange, VA

Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair October 24-26 in Asheville, NC

 

And of course, to show you what a great time it will be, here are some photos from past years. We’ll be answering questions on all of our products and doing lots of demos on how to use the Strauch swifts, ballwinders, and drum carders!

An unconventional use for the Strauch swift/skeinwinder spotted at a booth.

Another unconventional use for our Swift/skeinwinder Strauch Fiber

Joanne showing how to pull roving off a drum carder using a diz.

Joanne showing how to use a diz to pull off roving, Strauch Fiber

Joanne carding at Fall Fiber Festival.

Joanne at Fall Fiber Fair, Strauch Fiber

Otto at SAFF 2013.

Otto at SAFF 2013, Strauch Fiber

We hope to see you soon!

Posted in Shows | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment